VoIP and the telemarketing nightmare

The growing popularity of VoIP might have a big downside – telemarketing. Many folks are focusing on the SPAM problem associated with VoIP, ignoring the fact that falling costs of dialing means telemarketers can now dial as much as they want, and skirt the pesky “traditional long-distance cost constraints and U.S. Do-Not-Call regulations to flood Internet traffic with phone calls.” What more even low cost items can now be sold over the phone, which means more calls interrupting your dinner.

Burton Group analyst Fred Cohen told internetnews.com that “average enterprise or household could see as much as 150 calls a day from these telemarketers. Whenever you make something cost-efficient, people are going to use it for things you like and things you don’t like, and VoIP is going to suffer from this relatively soon.” A little bit of it might be fear mongering but still Cohen does make some good points. I think there is another aspect of VoIP, which I admit I had not thought about till recently. With calls so cheap, one could see more and more call center jobs flying out to places like India, China and Philippines.